Laurie Lee, is from Hawthorn Woods, IL, and now lives in Cary, IL with her husband Rob Lee, 2 cats, and her dog. Her passions include traveling, SCUBA diving, boating, animals, being an entrepreneur, the outdoors, and transplant. Laurie’s father received a liver from a deceased donor in 2011, and Laurie was extremely moved by that gift. Laurie donated a kidney to kick off a transplant chain that resulted in 6 kidney transplants in 2016 to pay that gift forward. Her blog, Spare Parts describes her journey to become a non-directed kidney donor.

Laurie is CEO of Swift Passport Services in Chicago. In addition to obtaining expedited passports and travel visas for the general public and corporations, Swift also registers all willing customers to sign up on the National Organ Donor Registry. To date Swift has signed up over 5,000 people to be organ donors.

Laurie’s goal is to inspire more people to consider non-directed living donation, and to inspire change in the language we use when we talk about organ donation. Her mission as it relates to transplant is to bring the concept of an organ surplus into society’s consciousness. In addressing the surplus of organs out there (versus the shortage), she believes we can create the opportunity for people to give big and operate from a place of opportunity and possibility. She believes there are millions of people just like her walking around with the ability and willingness to donate an organ while they are alive.

I feel that we took from the system, and I’m grateful for that, but I also feel that it is my responsibility to give back into the system. It doesn’t work if we all just take – we also have to give.

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Our inspired group of organ recipients, donors and their families is united in our mission to support the future of organ transplantation at Northwestern Medicine while connecting and supporting the transplant community.